Internet Tech support

Good morning all. Back in the dark days of the Internet, before cable modems and dsl, we had Dial Up modems. Almost all Systems Administrators, those who are any good that is, (Like yours truly), started their careers on the Helldesk Helpdesk.

Like so many others, I to had to assist the terminally clueless on getting their systems on to the Internet via the ISP’s I work for at the time. The average Helldesk tech’s time to burnout is about 18 months. This morning, I was checking out the latest rants from Foamy the Squirrel when I saw this video. It’s an old one, but it’s just as appropriate today as it was back in 2001.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Be3alRoxkOo[/youtube]

When I saw this video this morning I was laughing hysterically. I have done the same thing myself, and yes, the hold button IS your friend. I’ve also asked if there was a child in the house and had them actually fix their parents computer problem. (Children generally WILL listen. Adults, not so much)

By far the worst one for me was the new subscriber who didn’t know the difference between the monitor, the computer and the external modem. That one took 2 people a total of 20 hours to get online.

I’ve long since moved on and become a systems administrator. I still do some tech support, primarily for the Clown Prince of Stupidity Angry Webmaster. I also help out family of course. One of the best inventions is Remote Access. There are a number of tools that allow me to remotely log into a users computer and see what sort of a mess they’ve made of things. It’s extremely rare for me to actually have to come out and physically visit a users system.

We Sysadmins are also expected to teach users how to do things. Generally, we hate this since most users, (AKA Lusers), don’t have a clue. In fact, they couldn’t find a clue if they put on a clue suit, sprayed clue musk all over themselves, went to a field full of horney clues in heat and did the clue mating dance.

We never get any appreciation over the work we do, the long hours we put in cleaning up the mess left by lusers, and an even more dangerous type, the “Programmer.” Yes, lusers are stupid, but programmers, or as they like to be called, “Software Engineers,” are far worse than simple lusers. These people create programs that bring systems to a screeching halt and cause many hours of extra work for us poor Admins.

And it’s always the fault of “Your servers” and “The Network.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard “But it worked fine on my computer. It must be your server.” from programmers. They always seem to forget that they are creating their code on a PC, and that servers are a bit different. (Like being locked down so we don’t have Ukrainian hackers trying to break in)

Yes, we are not appreciated at all…. Except by this person:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE_p5N89XQI[/youtube]

Oh yes, we do know where you like to surf, so it pays to take care of your Systems Administrator.

~The Angry Systems Administrator~

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